Amy had never wanted to be out of a room more than she did right now. Yelena had gathered several students from the Tankery team into the classroom section of the garage. According to her, she'd wanted a "quick conversation on some of the stuff from the match."

These sorts of things were never quick, and as much as Amy valued and understood the importance of feedback, she would much rather be out in the garage helping Eiko. Out there, the STI was being prepped for Amy's race with Sayuki. Things hadn't really gotten started yet, so Amy took the chance to remove herself from the room.

"Do you really need me here, Yelena?" She blurted out.

Yelena looked at Amy from the far end of the room. "Not really, do you have something to do?"

"Yeah, Eiko's out there working on her car that I'm driving tomorrow night. I'd feel bad if I didn't at least help her since she's letting me use it."

"Okay, you're fine then."

Yelena gave a thumbs-up as Amy excitedly jumped from her chair and left the room. She walked to where Eiko had set up her work area. Underneath the front end of the Subaru were jack stands, and Eiko slid out from under her car.

"What's up?" Eiko asked.

"It appears that the answer is your car."

"Amy, that was a terrible joke."

"I'm aware."

Eiko stood up and mumbled to herself while she rummaged around inside a rolling toolbox. "Seventeen-millimeter, seventeen-millimeter. Seventeen, seventeen, seventeen… Ah!" She plucked a socket from a tray and closed the drawer.

Immediately, Amy knew had a guess as to what Eiko was doing. "Changing the oil?"

Eiko looked at Amy in surprise. "How'd you know?"

"Remember, I drive a Forester XT back home. It's got the same EJ engine block as your STI. I happen to remember that the oil drain plug is a seventeen-millimeter bolt. In addition, the jack stands are set up so that the car is tilted slightly to the left. I do the same thing, since the drain opens that way and you can get a better flow with that kind of angle."

"Y'know, I really shouldn't be surprised. Want to help? Find a screwdriver and pop the skirt clips in the front wheel wells. Just let it drop, it's a plastic part."

"I know how they work, Fozzy's got chassis cladding too."

Eiko rolled her eyes as she put the socket on a ratchet. "Yeah, yeah. Keep talking and I'll make you take off the oil filter."

Easily enough, the clips came undone and the cladding dropped to the floor. Eiko moved it from under the car and slid a catch pan underneath the drain.

"Watch this," she said as she turned the ratchet.

"What?" Amy looked under the car to see what Eiko was talking about.

"I'm not gonna spill a single drop."

"Bullshit."

"Wanna bet?"

"…No."

True to her word, Eiko unfastened the plug without dropping it into the pan, spilling any oil on the concrete, nor getting any on the car itself.

Now it was Amy's turn to be impressed. "Okay, but can you do that with the oil filter too?"

"Hell the fuck yeah!"

After all the oil had drained from the engine, Eiko moved the pan underneath the filter. She swapped out the 17mm socket for an oil filter socket and broke the filter loose with a single turn. After that, she set the wrench aside and reached her bare hand around the oil filter. Now was the really hard part.

In their infinite wisdom, the engineers at Subaru had designed the EJ-series engine so that the oil filter sat between the exhaust headers. It was a compact place, but this meant that anyone who wanted to remove the filter had to be extra careful not to brush their hand against the hot metal of the exhaust piping. This was a delicate movement that Amy had not yet mastered.

To Amy's amazement, Eiko removed the filter like it was nothing. Just as she'd promised, not a single drop of oil was left behind anywhere that wasn't the old filter, her hand, or in the catch pan.

"The hot oil doesn't bother you?"

"Meh. Can you fill and lube the new filter while I wash my arm off?"

"Sure."

Amy pulled the filter out of its box and opened a jug of fresh oil. She poured a small amount of it into the open filter top then dipped a finger into the liquid and spread it around the rubber seal.

While she was in the middle of wiping the oil off her finger with a rag, Amy heard someone say something.

"Hello?" A girl said from the open garage door.

"Oh, hello!" Amy recognized the girl as the Student Council President and realized that she had no idea what sort of proper greeting there was. "Uhh…"

"No worries, I can see you're in the middle of something. You are Amy Miller, correct?"

"Y-yes. That's me." Amy stammered.

"Nice to meet you again. Do you know where Yelena is?"

"She and a couple other students are in the classroom over there."

"Thanks!"

Before the President started to move to the classroom, Eiko returned from removing the oil from herself. "Oh, hey Cathay! What's up?"

"I was just looking for Yelena. You and Amy are up to something?"

"Yeah, just getting the car ready for Amy to kick Sayuki's ass tomorrow night."

"Ah, so it is tomorrow then." The president winked at Amy. "I'll be watching you. Good luck, Sayuki's pretty fierce." She walked off to the classroom.

Never before had Amy considered that racing was such a part of Dominion's culture that people as high up as the Student Council President would care about it, let alone watch. Though less of a surprise, it was still odd to see the interaction between Eiko and Cathay. Eiko had always seemed to hate the Vice President's very being. It was to the point that she'd also taken to calling her the "Bird" as well. On the other hand, Eiko was familiar enough with Cathay to casually talk to her like a friend, and not a superior.

"Hand me the filter." Eiko said from under the car. Amy handed it to her. "What did Cathay want?"

"She just wanted to know where Yelena was, but didn't say why."

"What are they even doing in there this late? The sun has already set, and it's going to be dark soon."

"No idea, something about discussing the match this weekend."

"Ah. Boring."

"Feedback is fun, but oil changes are more fun."

"Ayyy, my kind of girl."

Amy laughed at that for a moment before Eiko had her fill the engine with fresh oil. When all was said and done, they had gone through just under four liters of 5W-30 motor oil. Eiko lowered the car back to the ground and idled the engine for several minutes before shutting it off.

As she closed the hood, something in the engine bay caught Amy's eye. "Hey, what's up with that intercooler?" She asked Eiko.

"That? It's a slightly larger capacity one that I put in. I can get you the exact model number if you want to put one into your Forester when you get home."

"Nah, that's not it. It says "STI" on it, but it's not a stock STI part."

"Oh, I did that myself. I liked the way the original intercooler looked with the pink STI logo on the top, but of course that went away when I upgraded it. Solution? Get some pink spray paint, an STI stencil, and have at it."

"Cool! What else have you done to it?"

"Oh hell, that's a long answer. Well for starters, I didn't add a stupidly loud blow-off valve. God, I hate those things."

"Oh, you mean a bro-off valve? The things that every Subaru dudebro in the States puts on their WRX thinking it'll make it faster without adding a tune? Yeah, I know those. I once saw somebody with an EcoBoost Mustang that had the loudest blow-off valve I've ever heard. I swear, it was louder than a rally car. Dude kept doing pulls in the parking lot. EcoBoosts are cool, but not when they just make noise."

"EcoBoost Mustangs are the cars every basic bro will call 'not a real Mustang' until it takes their stock SN95 to Gapplebee's."

"I watched that exact thing happen once. It was probably the best muscle car race I've seen until I beat the EcoBoost with my Forester."

"Nice! We don't see a lot of that sort of muscle car over here, but they're around."

"Yeah…"

Amy was trying not to show her discomfort, but something was bothering her. Eiko picked up on it quickly. "What's up? Nervous about tomorrow?"

"Nah," Amy said as she looked toward the classroom.

Eiko didn't feel the need to pressure Amy about it, and instead let her speak on her own.

"I've just never seen the President here on her own before, and definitely never this late at night. Have you?" Amy asked.

"Never." Eiko said, shaking her head.

Things started to connect in Amy's mind and she started to realize why the President had shown up at such a weird time. The people that were in the classroom were all people who had dealt with the Bird when she was messing with Ayame. Amy explained her thinking to Eiko. She agreed. Both girls finished organizing everything that had been moved around for the oil change.

"Do you have any other guesses?" Amy asked Eiko, who shook her head no.

Both girls moved toward the classroom and leaned against the door. They tried to make out what was being said, but it was difficult.

"Hold on." Eiko said to Amy. She went back to her toolbox and rummaged around, then returned with what looked like a doctor's stethoscope. Instead of a circular end, it had a long hollow rod.

"Here. I normally use it for listening to fuel injectors and engine knock."

Amy took the instrument from Eiko and pressed it to the door. She could hear voices inside.

"Once again, I am so sorry for all of this. I understand that 'sorry' won't cut it, but it's the best I can offer right at this moment."

"What are you going to do with her?"

"I cannot say right now. There needs to be some kind of discipline, obviously. Unfortunately, that will require a lot more than just me. By that I mean escalating it to adult help."

"So?"

"Well, your instructor will be able to assist you with it but doing much about the Vice President herself will be difficult."

"And why is that?"

"Her parents are… let's just say they're important people. It will take a lot to get any sort of ball rolling."

"We have a lot to hopefully make that happen."

As the two girls moved away from the door, Amy explained to Eiko what she heard. It was pretty obvious that Cathay had been informed of the Bird's history. That was good news. On the other hand, it appeared that doing anything about it would be a challenge. Both of them sat by the Subaru and discussed the many ways they could think of to get something done about the Bird. Eventually, the conversation turned to Amy's race with Sayuki the next night. Just as Amy was getting to talking about how she planned to counter Sayuki's style of driving, a voice was audible from across the garage.

"Ikeda!"

Both Amy and Eiko looked at each other with wide eyes.

"What are the chances?" Amy breathed.

"Ikeda, come on out here! I've got a couple friends here, too!"

Eiko muttered something under her breath in Japanese, and then said something in English to Amy. "Yeah, and she's got company."

"I've already started an audio recording."

The sound of the classroom door opening and closing was heard, and then the sound of Ayame shuffling out. From where Amy was positioned, she could see Ayame walking slowly toward the garage door. She looked different than she had been recently. Ever since the win against Chi-Ha-tan and doubly so since this weekend, Ayame had been carrying herself better. Her back was straighter, and her stride was more confident. Now she had reverted to what she'd looked like before. Amy guessed that it was a ruse. Seeing as there were multiple people in the classroom behind her that could back her up, Ayame had to be acting in order to get a normal reaction from the Bird.

"Ah, there you are. How was that last match? I saw you got taken out without much of a fight."

Amy flinched. Anzio had certainly put up a hell of a fight against Dominion. She didn't enjoy her team's effort being downplayed like that.

The Bird continued. "You let yourself almost lose against such a weak team! Why didn't you steamroll them like Chi-Ha-Tan?"

Immediately after that sentence, there was the sound of a slap. She wasn't able to see what happened now that Ayame had moved, but Amy had to guess that the Bird or whoever was with her was back to beating the team captain.

What Ayame said next was something that Amy never thought she'd hear from the girl's mouth.

"If you hit me again, you're going to be so, so sorry."

"Yeah? Why's that? You gonna do something about it?"

"No."

"Exactly. Didn't think so. You're so weak you won't do anything, and you're so useless no one would even miss your sorry ass!"

More beating sounds.

Amy saw the door to the classroom open. Yelena and Cathay stepped out silently, and the rest of the team members were right behind them.

The Bird continued hurling insults until Cathay brought attention to herself.

"Miss Vice President!"

The Bird made some kind of stuttering vocalization that was one part English, one part Japanese, and one part stunned gibberish.

"Just what the hell are you doing to Ayame?"

"I-"

Amy and Eiko rushed out from their hiding place to see what was happening.

"You are harassing and abusing another student while using your position to justify it? Is that what you're going to admit to?"

"She almost lost us the match! Do you not understand how it would look for our school to have lost? Our reputation would be ruined!"

"What reputation?" Mia shouted. "Your school is the lowest of the low! You won a match against one school before this, so what?"

"We've won before."

Akari snorted in indignance. "Those were few and far between. What? Are we going to claim those as massive victories?"

The Bird ignored this and began arguing again. "We still have to keep winning. If we don't, we-"

"You what?" Delilah said. Her voice was audibly irritated as her accent began to thicken. "You are so low the only place you can go is up. To be honest, your school sucks."

"And it's Ayame's fault it won't get any better."

"Maybe the problem isn't the team. Maybe it's the ones at the top."

"Excuse me?"

Amy spoke up. "Shit leadership gets shit results."

"Exactly. Ayame is so terrible she can't even handle the team! Meanwhile, you people still manage to get knocked out." The Bird said, still trying to defend herself.

Mia spoke once again. "No. It's not Ayame, and it's not us." From the sound of her voice, Amy could tell that Mia was trying very hard not to resort to her usual frustration as she had earlier.

"Then who are you talking about? There's no way you're calling the President a poor leader."

The level of self-denial is unreal. Amy thought to herself.

"No, she's not." Yelena said. "The shit leader is you. You are so terrible that all you do is throw your weight around and bring thugs to beat people into submission. You're not a leader. You're not even a tyrant. You're just an asshole with a couple stupid friends."

"What did you say about me?" One of the Bird's friends exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Manami. She doesn't know what she's saying."

"Oh, I sure as hell know exactly what I'm saying. I'm saying that you're a terrible person and you, Manami, are an idiot for following her around."

Manami yelled angrily in Japanese as she rushed toward Yelena. Hoping to avoid any sort of injury from anyone, Yelena sidestepped and grabbed Manami's arm. She spun the Japanese girl around and threw her to the floor.

"You done?" Yelena asked.

"Of course not."

Manami pushed herself up off the floor as everyone looked on anxiously. She ran again at Yelena, who now chose a more direct method of dealing with the attacker. Her fist balled up as she wound her arm back. In one smooth motion, Yelena's fist connected with Manami's left shoulder and slid upward past her cheek.

Amy winced. She recognized that movement. It was the same one Yelena used to load rounds into the 6-pounder, one that she had perfected over the last month. Knowing Yelena's past tank experience, it wouldn't have surprised Amy to know that the same motion was used to load things like T-34-85s and T-44-100s. It had to have hurt.

Sure enough, Manami fell backwards to the floor. Her head slammed into the concrete as she clutched her shoulder and screamed.

"What was that?! My shoulder! You broke my fucking shoulder!"

"Nope. That's not broken, just dislocated. I felt the pop as I hit. Good luck explaining that one to the hospital."

Yelena turned to the Bird and her other friend. "Anyone else?"

Apparently, the Bird didn't seem to take her friend being injured too well. She also didn't seem to get the hint. "Why would you do that! She wasn't going to do anything to you!"

"Bullshit!" Yelena exclaimed in reply.

The Bird shifted her weight. Out of the corner of her eye, Amy saw Delilah kneel down.

"Listen to me, anyone who wants to mess with me like that won't get away with it."

"Is that so?" Delilah asked, almost as if she was tempting the Bird to do it.

"I am still right here, Miss Vice President. Anything you do will be known." Cathay reminded her.

Delilah was still kneeling and looked up at the crazed girl across from her. "How about you quit acting like a fool by beating people up and yelling about everything? Maybe you could try being an actual human being and doing things yourself for once!" Her voice was getting angrier and deeper.

"What? You think I won't do it?"

"Do what? Not be an ass for five minutes? Yeah, I don't think that's happening any time soon. You're too stupid to figure out how it would help you."

"I'm sorry?"

"You're an idiot. A useless idiot who thinks they know how to be the Vice President of a student council when all they really know is how to make people suffer."

The Bird's eyes flashed with rage and she shifted her weight again. Delilah sprung up into a standing position as the Bird rushed toward her. Before the Bird could get a successful hit on her, Delilah grabbed the girl by the collar and slammed her against the side of the M3 Lee that was beside them. The vertical steel casemate provided a perfect surface to hold a person against, and the Bird ended up being pinned between the hull door and the mount for the 75mm gun.

"Ackkkghh!" The Bird had the wind knocked out of her from the impact. Her arms flailed uselessly.

Delilah looked her dead in the eye, her voice now a deep growl and her accent so thick that it was nearly unintelligible. "Remember me? Remember what I told you?" In Delilah's hand was her skean dhu. The polished steel flashed in the light. "Remember what I said you'd find out?"

The Bird's eyes were wide with fear. Delilah's left arm was pinned across her throat. The pressure hardly allowed her to breathe, let alone say anything. The steel was still warm from being in Delilah's boot. That sensation reminded the Bird of what that girl in the dark had told her. Several weeks later, the memory was still clear as day.

Everyone watched in shock and horror as Delilah held the Bird against the side of the tank for several minutes. The blade of the knife looked like it would cut into the throat of the terrified girl until Delilah finally backed off. The Bird slumped to the ground and leaned against the forward road wheel of the number two bogie. Amy could see a very faint mark on her neck. The blade had been so sharp that it had just barely cut at the top few layers of skin. The cut was just deep enough to bleed ever so slightly, but small enough to heal almost overnight. However, it was enough to properly scare the Bird into submission.

"Normally I don't like physical punishment. But this is a special case, and I wouldn't call it punishment." Delilah said, turning to Ayame. "Come over here, you need to do something."

"Wha-what?" Ayame stammered. She stepped toward the two girls.

Delilah sheathed her knife in her boot and hauled the Bird up to a semi-standing position. "Hit her."

"I can't…"

"Good and hard."

"I can't just-"

"Ayame, she's beaten the shit out of you for god knows how long. Do it or I'll get Yelena to jack up her shoulder too."

Reluctantly, Ayame wound up.

"Do it, Ayame."

She threw a half-enthusiastic punch into the Bird's shoulder, who staggered a bit but was held up by Delilah.

"Do it for real."

Ayame threw another punch, and this time it landed hard in the Bird's chest. The girl doubled over as Delilah let her drop.

To everyone's surprise, Ayame didn't stop there. She brought herself down close to the Bird and began striking down on her with her fist. Hit after hit, she just kept going and would not stop for almost thirty seconds before she stood up and staggered backwards to be caught by Hiromi. Ayame looked like she was about to cry as she collapsed into Hiromi's arms.

As far as Amy could tell, the other person the Bird had brought with her had wisely run off into the night. Manami was being helped up by Akari; the Bird was still laying on her side. Delilah shoved her with the heel of her boot. "Now you look as pathetic as you are."

The Bird groaned in pain. "Help me…"

Ayame moved to help the Bird up, but Mia stopped her. "Let her stay there. She can help herself."

Delilah nodded. "Aye, I second that. Everyone, we've done what we needed to. Hiromi, would you mind taking Manami to the clinic to get her shoulder looked at?"

"That's not necessary." Amy said as she brushed past Delilah.

"What, do you know anything about dislocated joints?"

"I'll have you know that I am required by my job to have a Wilderness First Aid certification."

"What the hell is that?"

Amy approached Manami and put one hand on the girl's shoulder and one just above it.

POP

Manami squealed in pain and nearly fell back to the floor.

"All done." Amy said. "It'll be sore, but nothing too bad. Oh, and if it still hurts a lot, go see a doctor.

"Can I go now?" Manami winced.

"You should've left a while ago. Better late than never though."

Manami stumbled out of the garage into the darkness.

That left the Ram crew, Ayame, and Hiromi still in the garage as the rest of the team was in the process of taking their leave. The Bird was still laying on the floor in a beaten mess. Ayame stared at the heap of a person that was her abuser with a mixture of fear and anger. Amy thought that she saw some amount of remorse in her captain's eyes, but she wasn't sure. On the other hand, Hiromi's expression was one with zero pity. She didn't even seem to register the girl that was crumpled on the floor of her garage.

The inside of the garage was nearly silent, save for Ayame's shaky breathing.

"Anyone need a ride?" Hiromi asked, still apparently showing no care for the beaten girl on the floor not ten feet from her.

"Ayame probably does, but I seem to have become the taxi for everyone else in the room. Well, except her of course." Eiko responded, nodding at the Bird.

No one needed any extra motivation to leave. Ayame followed Hiromi outside, and the Ram crew followed Eiko.

"Is everyone okay?" Delilah asked when they were all outside in the cool night air.

No one was hurt, but everyone was at least shaken up. Amy appeared to have it the worst.

"I'm fine, but I think I'll walk home." She said. "I just need a bit of time to calm down."

"Okay, let us know if you need anything, yeah?" Eiko said.

Amy nodded in thanks and left the girls behind. They'd get home faster, but she had something she wanted to do.

The Bird lay alone in the darkness. Inside her mind, the events of the past half-hour played over and over. She felt tiny. Everyone in the garage had seen Delilah nearly choke her to death and then Ayame beat her to a pulp. No one, let alone the Bird, had guessed Ayame could do that to anyone. Hell, Ayame herself probably didn't even know it.

Where the Bird was left didn't help her mental state. The cool concrete of the floor soothed her bruises but didn't provide relief for anything that wasn't physical. Around her, the airy ceilings and towering tanks made the Bird feel even smaller. This sort of feeling wasn't exactly new, but never before had it been so strong nor so immobilizing.

Even with the quiet, darkness, and soothing loneliness, the Bird found it impossible to make herself stop thinking enough to calm down and collect herself to leave. Instead, she lay on the concrete and waited for what seemed like ages. She didn't know what she was waiting for. Maybe it was a calmer head, maybe it was sleep. Maybe it was some solution to everything that had happened.

Despite her swirling mind, the Bird was at least aware enough to hear the door open and close gently.

The Bird called out, "I heard that. I heard the door. If you're looking to throw me around again, just get it over with and leave me alone."

"I don't have it in me to beat anyone up, no matter how much of a jackass they are."

With a minor amount of pain, the Bird rolled over and looked at who was talking to her. Amy stood before her with a flashlight set on dim.

"Maybe it says something about me that I assumed you were Delilah or Ayame or someone here to cause even more pain."

"Holy hell, you are self-aware."

"Fuck you." The Bird rolled her eyes. For a moment, she seemed just a little normal before deflating back into her current state of being curled up on the floor. "Is this how it feels? How everyone else feels?"

"Only for the people you beat the everloving shit out of."

The Bird seemed to become even smaller. Amy quickly changed course. "You're not going to ask what I'm actually here for?"

"That was going to be my next question when I gained enough of a mental state to ask it."

Amy nodded in understanding, then sat down next to the girl. "I wanted to make sure you're okay." She looked over the shell of a person in front of her. The Bird's school uniform was wrinkled and covered in dirt and grease from the floor. Her neck had a slight bruise, the tiny cut was still a fresh red. Other parts of her body had similar light bruises. Amy guessed that the worst of the bruises were hidden by clothing. The Bird was partially curled up, a different position than the defeated sprawl she'd been in when everyone had left.

At least she's moved a little bit.

"A quick look tells me that you're not okay. Here." Amy disappeared from view, but the Bird could hear her open a container and look around inside. She returned with small blue packets made of plastic.

"What are those?" The Bird asked.

"Instant cold compresses." Amy crushed them in her hand to activate them and pressed one against the Bird's arm. "Does that help?"

The Bird nodded. She could feel the packs cooling down and relieving some of the pain.

"Take the rest, you can put them wherever it hurts most."

The Bird took the packs and placed one on her chest and the other on her forehead. "I wish I could put one in my soul."

"You've got a cold enough heart already; you don't need that."

"If you think I'm so terrible, why would you help me?"

Amy shrugged. "Sure, you act like a complete moron with no regard for others. Doesn't mean you're invincible to pain. I don't see a need for you to suffer more than you already have. I believe that you have it in you to be decent, and that you just need to be shown what that looks like. Personally, I prefer leading by example over force."

"What?"

"Listen, don't tell anyone I was here. Here's my number if you need me. I have to go and pretend to sleep, alright? Do you need help getting home?"

"No, I can get myself there, thank you."

"Okay. Just know that I'm willing to listen if you need me."

Amy disappeared out the door and into the night.

Deep down inside the Bird's chest, something cracked. Someone cared. Someone cared enough to go out of their way to help her, even when she didn't deserve anything but a fist to the face.

For the first time in years, Elizabeth King cried.

Note: Hey, hey! I'm finally back! This chapter has taken me the longest to write so far. It's not because the chapter is so long or requires lots of research like other ones, but because this scene has been in my head since the very beginning. I wanted to get it right, and combined with very little free time due to my job, that meant I didn't fully finish writing it for a month and a half. My apologies for being on hiatus for so long, but life happens. I'm not quite sure when the next chapter will be ready, but that one will be a regular chapter instead of me replacing the hiatus note which means it will send a notification. See you all then, and thanks for reading!